Tag: Moleskine

I wanted to write a blog post this morning, but my mind was empty of ideas.

This is an unusual situation for me. Usually my brain is brimming with thoughts to share on writing. Not today.

Was it because I just returned home from Nashville last week? Because I'd finished the greater part of a big editing job? Maybe my brain was dead because I'd turned in the Emma Jean edits before my trip?

Who can say? And does it really matter when the end result is the same? (To ask why, I've learned, is often useless speculation. What matters is what. As in, what can I do about this situation?)

I assigned myself thought exercises. Told my brain to cook up a topic. That didn't work. So I pulled out the little paisley notebook I use for blog ideas. Actually found one I hadn't used and started working on it.

Until I realized I really didn't care much about the topic at the moment and my heart wasn't in it.

And then my friend Sandra tweeted a link to this post. (Because, of course, when the muse is absent you go look for it on Twitter. Right? You do, don't you?) And I thought, why not dive right in and see what happens?

And here I am, I've made it this far. And at this very moment, my thoughts are turning to control. And how much of it I unwittingly exert over my creativity. How rarely I allow myself to plunge onto the page, unfettered, as I have with this post.

For instance, I always start a post knowing what I'm going to write about (except for today).

I always have at least a starting point when I start work on my novel.

Hmmm. It occurs to me that this is why morning pages are so good for me–I just open up my Moleskine and begin to write. And whatever comes out, comes out. Of course, nobody sees that except for me. So the control gets exerted when my writing is for public consumption.

Which makes sense–and yet. And yet, I think I could benefit from more unfettered writing in my life. More journal entries. More crazy fun flash fiction. More sitting down and having at the novel without worrying about exactly where its going.